Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Nyadnar17 ·
April 6, 2011 at 5:24pm
On occasion I find myself wondering what the other side thinks of an issue. Unfortunately, I have no idea where to go to find an informative dissenting opinion. Any left wing writers out there that whose opinion you respect even though you completely disagree with them?
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Comments:
Sep '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
What about William Galston?
Apr '11
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
I second Paglia. Although I disagree with much of what she says, her writing style is superb and often calls out idiocy within the left.
Aug '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
The only one I read regularly is Matt Yglesias, who I see as the right-of-center counterpart to Reihan Salam. That is, he's prolific, open-minded, and principled.
Ezra Klein on the other hand strikes me as someone in way over his head who loses sight of the forest for the trees. This was exemplified by his exhaustive coverage of Obamacare, almost all of which was essentially blind to the big picture problem that all the detailed wonky technocratic fixes aimed at bending the cost curve and improving outcomes wouldn't work and/or would be reversed by some future Congress.
Oct '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Karl Marx
May '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Jeffrey Goldberg, Christopher Hitchens.
Jul '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Hitch (wishing him well) and Paglia. Don't agree with them on many things (e.g., Hitch on religion), but their writing is so good and their arguments so well presented, one has to do some work to refute them. That's much more satisfying than easily smacking down the holy trinity of race, class, gender nonsense. I also respect them for their ability to take principled stands on issues rather than blindly follow the party line. (Paglia on mindless feminism; Hitch as persona non grata at The Nation for his stand on Iraq, et al.)
Jun '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
I agree about Hitchens, Paglia, Kaus, and Galston. But I also think that we tend to agree with them when they depart from the leftist line: Hitchens on the perniciousness of radical Islam, Paglia (as barbara lydick says) on "mindless feminism," and Kaus and Galston because when the Dems are heading for a train wreck (as they were 2010) they call it like they see it (both are certainly more centrists than leftists).
My problem is that when leftists are really being leftists (say, for example, when they deny we have a spending/budget problem or their penchant for mindless environmentalism), it's impossible to reconcile that kind of mindless "whistling past the graveyard" with being in touch with the real world.
So, for me, I don't really have favorites on the left. I respect some leftists when they show enough guts and rationality to depart from the leftist orthodoxy.
Besides, leftists are humorless (maybe they like Stalinist gray). Is there anyone on the left who creates humor that compares with P. J. O'Rourke, Mark Steyn, James Lileks, Rob Long, Klaven on the Culture, Bill Whittle, or Andrew Ferguson? I can't.
Edited on April 6, 2011 at 9:03pmJun '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
It's not really a general-politics blog, being specialized in law, but I often enjoy TalkLeft. This is not to say I often agree, but they don't seem to go in much for demonization and some of the cases they describe appeal to the libertarian streak in me.
Aug '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Check out the Slate Political Gabfest.
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discussing politics.
They are articulate and bright and clean and Emily is a nice looking woman.
Jun '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Squishy Blue RINO: Check out the Slate Political Gabfest.
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discussing politics.
They are articulate and bright and clean and Emily is a nice looking woman. · Apr 6 at 2:06pm
... Emily is a nice looking woman? Its a podcast!
Jun '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Squishy Blue RINO: Check out the Slate Political Gabfest.
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discussing politics.
They are articulate and bright and clean and Emily is a nice looking woman. · Apr 6 at 2:06pm
She's also the granddaughter, I believe, of Judge David Bazelon, one of the worst wild-eyed examples of judicial activism in American history. Tom Sowell rips him apart at great length in The Vision of the Anointed.
She may be fine looking, but she has very liberal genes and a big pro-abortion fan.
Edited on April 6, 2011 at 11:35pmAug '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Pilgrim
Squishy Blue RINO: Check out the Slate Political Gabfest.
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discussing politics.
They are articulate and bright and clean and Emily is a nice looking woman. · Apr 6 at 2:06pm
... Emily is a nice looking woman? Its a podcast! · Apr 6 at 2:16pm
Smile when you say that, mister.
I had to get the Full Biden in, and she has a lovely voice.
Edited on April 7, 2011 at 12:45amAug '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
tabula rasa
Squishy Blue RINO: Check out the Slate Political Gabfest.
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discussing politics.
They are articulate and bright and clean and Emily is a nice looking woman. · Apr 6 at 2:06pm
She's also the granddaughter, I believe, of Judge David Bazelon, one of the worst wild-eyed examples of judicial activism in American history. Tom Sowell rips him apart at great length in The Vision of the Anointed.
She may be fine looking, but she has very liberal genes and a big pro-abortion fan. · Apr 6 at 2:30pm
Edited on Apr 06 at 02:35 pm
Oh yes, my point exactly.
I'm not advocating their politics at all. Just pointing out where to find pharmceutical grade lefty jibber-jabber.
They are like thouroghbred horses with blinders on their right eyes.
Edited on April 7, 2011 at 12:39amJun '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Squishy Blue RINO
tabula rasa
Squishy Blue RINO: Check out the Slate Political Gabfest.
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discussing politics.
They are articulate and bright and clean and Emily is a nice looking woman. · Apr 6 at 2:06pm
She's also the granddaughter, I believe, of Judge David Bazelon, one of the worst wild-eyed examples of judicial activism in American history. Tom Sowell rips him apart at great length in The Vision of the Anointed.
She may be fine looking, but she has very liberal genes and a big pro-abortion fan. · Apr 6 at 2:30pm
Edited on Apr 06 at 02:35 pm
Oh yes, my point exactly.
I'm not advocating their politics at all. Just pointing out where to find pharmecutical grade lefty jibber-jabber.
They are like thouroghbred horses with blinders on their right eyes. · Apr 6 at 3:07pm
Sorry. Your irony slipped right past me.
Jul '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Peter Beinart at The Daily Beast does a pretty even-handed job.
Mar '11
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Once upon a time, when the Internet was still ARPAnet and most of the sysops knew the names of each others' children, I followed (on dead-tree) two columnists, Mort Kondracke and Bob Novak. They were home-boys for yours truly, and I usually found that I was floating somewhere between the two of them. Over time, the Prince of Darkness won me over, but I still check up on what Mort has to say - he's thinking at least, which is more than I can say for a lot of them.
I'd agree though that Hitchens and Paglia are usually pretty good reads - and Kaus. I guess I prefer the lefties that have the gumption and intellectual honesty to get out of step from time to time.
Sep '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Only old timers will remember William Raspberry, who wrote for the Washington Post. I always thought he had reasoned thoughtful responses to issues, even though I disagreed with him often.
At one time I thought Leonard Pitts would fill the void left by Raspberry's retirement. But since 2008 he has played the race card more and more until he has lost his objectivity. Too bad.
Nov '10
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
Does this guy count? He WAS a "liberal" blogger/columnist. I think he still is, a gay who confesses to heartlessly mocking anyone with a hint of religiosity, and relentlessly campaigned for Hillary. But he also professes to having made a radical conversion to conservatism (scroll down in the cited post to "Glenn Beck" where he relates how the Glenn Beck rally finally tipped the scale after many disappointments in the progressive agenda. A moving tale.
In my view, today's progressives are not "liberal"; it's improper to describe them as such. Center-right conservatism maintains all the classical traditions of Western Liberalism. The left has abdicated almost all of the core liberal values and I think it's time to strip them of the title. Except, perhaps, for the Mickey Kauses and a few others who still subscribe to them -- and it's no wonder they find themselves more at home among us conservatives!
Mar '11
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
I've been reading Kevin Drum on and off since his calpundit days. He's slipped a bit in recent times, and his commenters are always a complete disaster, but he's usually intellectually honest for a lefty blogger.
Mar '11
Re: Who's Your Favorite Liberal Blogger/Columnist?
What no love for Lee Stranahan?